We forgot to remember

Lest we forget -
how hollow the words
as they spin and echo
through time.
We rummage around
in the memory bag
and pull them out
with a flourish.
And yet as they stand
in bitter disdain,
as words without substance
or sense,
we know that they are
but lies we still tell;
we forgot to remember
it all.
It makes us feel good
to honour the past,
to talk of the lives
that were lost,
but the killing goes on,
no lessons are learned
and the dead are still
paying the price.
A few flags and flowers
is all that it takes,
a moment, a word or a tear,
and yet it means nothing -
the wars still go on;
hypocrisy tilts on her heels.